Swing and miss... which story arcs are most in need of revamp or outright removal?

This what? Do you perhaps have something to add?

I like the gameplay in City of Heroes, whereas I didn't like the gameplay of Halo. At least the original is one of the blandest shooter experiences I can recall even at the time, comparable to games like Serious Sam. City of Heroes, by contrast, has gameplay that is ostensibly fun in and of itself. Perhaps not "great," but then what MMO is? However, compared to pretty much every other MMO I've ever played, City of Heroes is leaps and bounds better and more fun. Actually sitting back and watching a CoH fight is cool and fun, and participating in one is even more so. I can literally never have enough of just going into an instance and killing things. I can't say the same for Halo. I was bored of that game's actual gameplay within half an hour of starting it, though regenerating health and that particular art design has a lot to do with it.

I don't really ask for anything out of City of Heroes beyond more stuff to kill and a framing device to explain why I'm killing stuff. If story needs to happen, it needs to happen where gameplay isn't going to be interrupted by it. I like both the story AND the gameplay of City of Heroes, just not at the same time, just as I like both the story AND the gameplay of Half-Life, but lengthy "cutscenes" where I'm confined to an area until they play out do drag after the third or fourth time I play through them.

That, really, is where story begins to drag - not the first time or the second time, but when you play through a game many times over. And our MMO in particular is virtually designed to be played over and over again, whereas Halo is not. It's a self-contained story, like a movie that you go through from beginning to end. I enjoy a dialogue tree the first time I see it. I enjoyed the Dean McArthur dialogue trees greatly back in I17. After running no less than 12 characters through his arcs, I enjoy them rather a lot less now.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Yeah, these would make more sense if you actually had to face ambushes along the patrol route or if there was some other arc-related content that spawned at one of the phones. The way those are written implies that this will happen, but it never does. If instead you were told to 'patrol for Freak activity', and at some point along the route there was some actual Freak activity that mattered, something that might take you into a side mission or down a different branch, that could be cool.

These might've been intended to get you to do some targeted street hunting, but they don't really serve that purpose. If you want to street hunt, you'll just street hunt. If you pick a mission you want to do a mission, preferably in an instance; any hunts or patrols will be dealt with as quickly as possible and with considerable grumbling.

See, I actually kind of like the Uqua arcs. I understand that you are ignoring the elephant in the room and that may annoy a LOT of players- but I always saw it as my villain seeing right through her and deciding to take the money anyways, it's not my war.

Best comparison I can think of is a pair of lines from the Dr Who story "Seeds of Doom"-

Doctor: You're working for a madman Scorby, do you know that?
Scorby: He pays well, and when it comes to money Mr. Chase and I are of the same religion.

I admit a little story editing would clean this up, but I never saw it as a huge offense to my character. Now Wheeler... I soo wish there was a Tip mission later where we torture and kill this lil stool pigeon...

Which would work if you weren't left with a souvenir where you wonder what just happened. You'd think that intentionally failing the last mission might serve as a rudimentary way to introduce choice and spite her, but no. If you let the last mission fail, you end up looking even dumber, because you're outright said to suspect something might be wrong, but unaware of what that might be. SHE'S A RIKTI SPY! That's what's wrong!

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.